10/24/06

I was in the Assembly of God once...

A Pew Forum survey of the growth of the Pentecostal / Charismatic movements discovered while reading GetReligion.org .

Bottom line? Pentecostal / Charismatic Christianity will remain a challenge for Orthodoxy to the extent we do not recover the biblical and personal nature of our Faith.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was surprised at the article's statement, "Indeed, most charismatics are members of mainstream Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox denominations." Orthodox, also, I wondered?

So I visited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charismatic_movement and learned that (assuming the writer is reliable) there was apparently a brief, failed attempt at Charismatic Orthodoxy in the 50s and 60s. In indeed, there are a few churches that call themselves Orthodox and Charismatic on the internet, even today. On the other hand, there apparently exists a growing number of Catholic Charismatics. I wonder how that's being addressed...

I can't quite get my head wrapped around the idea of Charismatic Orthodox Christianity, simply because Charismatic "renewal" seems contrary to the Orthodox trust in Tradition (as well as Scripture, of course).

- Athanasios

The Traveler said...

I think the reason "charismatic" movements don't have as much traction in Orthodoxy is that Orthodoxy has never been "non-charismatic". We've always believed in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and the manifestation of spiritual gifts, including "miraculous" ones. We struggle, though, with the emotive and highly individualistic style of what is often called "charismatic" in the present.